This paper provides a legal and economic analysis of the European rules for regional State aid according to Article 107 (1) and (3) TFEU. It summarizes the historical evolution and the trends of regional aid rules and describes the economic rationale behind them. The main principles are...

Network industries with low sunk costs have been popular examples for the theory of contestable markets and spatial competition models. We argue that, due to the multimarket nature of operations, theories of predation are more relevant to explain strategic behaviour. Building on well established...

Current anti-predation rules are designed to detect and prevent actions that are only taken to drive out a rival. We evaluate the performance of these rules in a simple entry game. We find that the rules used by competition authorities fail to encourage sustained competition in the market....

Merger activity is intense during economic booms and subdued during recessions. This paper provides a non-financial explanation for this observable pattern. We construct a model in which the target—by setting the takeover price—screens the acquirer on his (expected) ability to realize...

In our paper targets, by setting a reserve price, screen acquirers on their (expected) ability to generate merger-speci?c synergies. Both empirical evidence and many common merger models suggest that the di?erence between high- and low-synergy mergers becomes smaller during booms. This implies...

This paper analyses how different types of access regulation to next generation networks affect investments and consumer welfare. The model consists of an investment stage with uncertain returns and subsequent quantity competition. The access price is a function of investment costs and the...

Price concentration studies investigate the relationship between market concentration and price levels. They are increasingly used in the mobile telecom industry. This paper provides a detailed account of the limitations of such studies. In addition, it proposes a specific approach in order to...

Uncertainty about the supply of Russian natural gas is causing extremely high and volatile European gas and electricity prices. European Union countries may struggle to import sufficient volumes of natural gas at reasonable prices. During the summer, the imperatives are to fill storage sites...